Why Storytelling for Advocacy Matters?
Growing up we’ve all heard so many stories from our grandparents, parents, and friends. And it's weird how we still remember them. In a sense, you could say that our life revolves around stories of all kinds. As human beings, we find them interesting and a crucial part.
Stories, when told in a simple manner can be impactful especially if we can relate to them on a personal level. If you ask me what’s a story? I’d say it’s somebody placing a story or narrating one in front of you and hoping that something inside you connects to it, connects to them. We all look for an emotional connection.
How can we use this emotional connection in storytelling for advocacy? What kind of stories and experiences bring people together? Storytelling is an art and has the power to move people in ways nothing else can. In this blog, I’m going to talk about 5 important steps required for storytelling in advocacy.
1. Finding Your Message
This is the first step and the most important step in storytelling. It matters how you motivate people and how you structure your story. You want to send the right message, and you want to do that on a personal level. Find a story that’s your own and that you can relate to on a personal level. You want to connect to your own story before anyone else can. If you’re not feeling your own story and not connecting with it then you honestly cannot expect anyone else to. Your story should be simple and easy to remember.
Ask yourself this question: What message should you share?
The kind of message you choose to share should be personal and appeal to emotions. It has to come from a personal experience as personal experiences are hard to oppose and argue with. Also, don’t make your message very complicated. You also want to back up your story with facts with data.
For example, if you’re a rape survivor you could say:
“Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the 2019 annual report, the number of reported cases from 2005 to 2019 was over 338 thousand. And most of the time the accused is someone known to the victim.” (Source: India: number of reported rape cases)
It’s your story to tell, so make sure it’s impactful.
2. Finding Your Story
The story you’re telling needs to serve its purpose. It has to be specific, you have to resonate with your audience on a personal and emotional level. Connect your stories, stories told by your friends, others you know, and make your audience relate to the experiences. Generally, as humans, we tend to make our decisions based on emotions.
What story should you tell? Start with your message always and pick a personal story that relates to you. Practicing how you want to tell your story can help and go a long way in telling your story.
3. Write A Summary
Be concise when telling your story. Write a summary before crafting the entire story. Tell your story in the most concise way possible and come up with a structure as to how you want to tell your story. Here’s an example:
Before Change/ Change/ After Change
Take Cinderella for instance. She was serving her sisters and was not allowed to go to the ball. It changed when she met the fairy mother and could then go to the ball.
Change- She met the prince, After change- she lived happily ever after.
Boiling your story down allows you to build it, back up in a way that serves your message. If your message is Medicaid Changeover then this is how you can boil down your story:
“Before the Medicaid Changeover, I lived in an apartment and managed my own care. When Iowa Medicaid was privatized I lost the care I needed to live independently. I had to move back home and rely on my family to provide my care.”
This is concise yet powerful, and short.
4. Add Emotion
The reality is that a lot of people who try to advocate for anything try to lead with numbers, facts, and abstract concepts. While it’s good to back up with numbers and data, humans sometimes, whether you believe it or not, don’t think in those terms. In fact, humans use numbers, facts, and abstract concepts to justify what they have already emotionally accepted and what they believe to be true. This is why fake news drives on social media, it appeals to emotions.
So, if you’re going to tell a story to serve a message you have to focus on emotions. You cannot be afraid to be vulnerable, don’t be afraid to cry or show emotions. Emotions move people, and you have to dig deep inside you to make an impact. How do you do that?
Let’s talk about primary and secondary emotions.
Primary emotions include anger, fear, and sadness. These emotions are the first thing you feel when you get triggered. The issue with primary emotions is that they’re not very specific. When someone says, “I’m angry” it’s hard to relate to that anger because anger can mean different things to different people.
In order to get people to connect you need to dig deeper- not into your primary emotions but into your secondary emotions, which include anxiety, isolation, and thrill. These emotions are much more specific as these are emotions you will feel later on. What makes secondary emotions so powerful from a storytelling standpoint is that they’re visceral.
If I say, “I’m feeling anxious” I’m sure everyone reading this article knows what that feels like, they can feel the tingles and the cold hands and that weird feeling in their stomach.
Take this example for instance:
“I was nervous and scared when I decided to come out to my parents. I come from a very conserved family and didn’t know how my parents would react to me being gay. My stomach was twisted and I was sweating. I did not want to be a disappointment to them.” It’s not easy to tell such stories out loud or to dig into emotions, they aren’t always fun to share, but these are emotions that move people.
5. Edit Your Story
It doesn’t matter how good of a writer, a storyteller, or a public speaker you are. You have to edit your story, no matter how long you’ve been doing it. Editing is essential to make sure you’re sticking only to the most vital aspects of your message and your story.
As humans, we tend to get off track, editing is a way to step back and take a look at your story as a whole to make sure that everything to put in it- from your basic structure to your emotions serves your message because at the end of the day we’re telling stories to share a message.
Here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself to make sure that you are including the most vital aspects:
● Does my story make sense without this?
● It is essential to the message?
That means if you think your story can do without and there are things that don’t serve the message, and it’s not a necessary detail for them to follow your story, then it's better gone.
We’ve seen how powerful stories are, and they have the strength to move people and make an impact in this world. Remember, your story is yours to tell, and you get to decide how to tell them. I hope this article gives you a clearer insight on how to make storytelling for advocates more meaningful and beautiful. All stories matter so let’s take it one story at a time.
